Some sports-related DVDs for holiday giving

Time is growing short for holiday shopping, so let’s run through some sports-related DVDs that can help you fill in the gaps.

Olympics: The odd thing about NBC’s home video offerings for the Olympics is that they have declined in number over the years. In 2000, the first Olympics that I covered in person, NBC had a 15-VHS tape set called Quest for the Gold. By 2008, that had dwindled to four DVDs, and the London Games merited just two discs – one for highlights, one for gymnastics, which means, essentially, one for the women’s gold medal team plus a dash of Danell Leyva tossed in for good measure.

Both discs are on Amazon and other online retailers for $9 to $12. Disappointing, but that’s what we’ve got – unless, of course, you have a multi-region player that can handle PAL discs, in which case you can spring for the five-DVD set from the BBC ($75 for blu-ray, $40 for DVDs). I haven’t seen the BBC set, but it looks like a reasonable overview of events.

Baseball: We’ve dealt with MLB Productions’ offerings on the Mets and Red Sox elsewhere in some detail. The Astros anniversary set ($28 on Amazon) may be the best for local fans, since it’s probably the last chance you’ll have for awhile to see the Astros actually win something of significance. Also new this year is a four-disc World Series documentary set that’s available at a steep discount, plus the annual World Series highlight film and the game-by-game World Series set.

Basketball: For a league that ruthlessly promotes itself in every other venue, the NBA doesn’t do much, if anything, on the DVD front. There’s the annual NBA Finals highlight video plus a few five-game highlight boxes for a few teams, but that’s it.

Football: NFL Films is still in the early stages of its new distribution deal with Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment, and the crown jewel of this season’s offerings is a 23-disc set of Super Bowl highlight films, through SB 46. Suggested retail is, gulp, $250, but you can find heavily discounted copies across the Internet. NFL Films also is coming to the end of its second season of “A Football Life,” with upcoming episodes on Marcus Allen and the Immaculate Reception. Expect a DVD set of the 12-episode season (I thought the best episodes in this run were on the 1995 Cleveland Browns and on Barry Sanders) sometime next year.

ESPN Films: The “30 for 30” documentary brand continues, even though ESPN has now produced, by my count, 45 documentaries since diving full-scale into the business a couple of years ago. The most recent set is a six-disc set that mixes some recent films (Magic Johnson, Chuck Wepner) with some of the original 30 documentaries. Don’t expect a DVD set of the current season, the fall portion of which wrapped last week with “You Don’t Know Bo” on Bo Jackson, until late next year with next spring’s films included.

WWE: I continue to be amazed at the volume of product that World Wrestling Entertainment produces in addition to its pay-per-view recaps. The best option for local interests among the recent DVD offerings is “Undertaker: The Streak,” featuring Waltrip graduate Mark Calaway, aka the Undertaker, and his 20-year win streak at Wrestlemania ($20 on Amazon).

The December offerings include two sets aimed at fans in their 30s and 40s. One is on the NWO, the Hulk Hogan-led faction that debuted in Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling and had a later run in WWE. Unfortunately, it’s essentially a warmed-over version of the 2002 NWO “Back in Black” single-disc DVD that is now out of print.

Also in the $20 range is “The Attitude Era” on the late 1990s/early 2000s WWE storylines featuring Steve Austin, the Rock and others. Like the NWO three-disc set, this one would have been better suited with a two-disc documentary and one disc of matches and other extras.

Yes Cowboy and fortunately for you it is only available in VHS format. You’ll be able to watch it on your 1987 13″ VCR/TV combo while you drink yourself into a stupor and try to make yourself believe that your existence is still worth all the heartache.

Yes Cowboy and fortunately for you it is only available in VHS format. You’ll be able to watch it on your 1987 13″ VCR/TV combo while you drink yourself into a stupor and try to make yourself believe that your existence is still worth all the heartache.

Cowboy,
Oh, the irony. Every one of your posts for the last __ years has been virtually the “same stupid comment”. And trust me, your relevance has been on such a headlong decline that it’s now at the center of the earth with nowhere to go.